The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-06-04

ssVA Va AOVO PcOple Oet0 tuSt
are now but . few hundred.
street, the principal thoroughfare
reveled in the possession of fort,
faro banks and % many saloons
D street was the home of the sole,
doves. For four blocks there va
an unbroken line of these palaces
Of beastiality. And such orgies
And all the time, night and day
and Sundays and Mondays, tel
thousand men were digging in tn,
bowels of the earth, unde,neatl
the town for the root of all evil, tn,
purchaser of many, good things
that without which we cannot exis,
in these latter days; and the mills
were reducing the crude material
while other mills were refining it
and mints were coming it and
sending it'forth to bless and curse
the world At once.
MAcKAY's srERr.
There never was such . mining
camp in this country as Virginia
City for at least FIVE unbroken years.
In the Ophir once delved a sweat
ing miner, pushing an oar car on
the 7OO-foot level and wishing he
might be so fortunate some day as
to get $25, 900 together to ease his
mothers declining years then, as
his sobriety and intelligence we're
better appreciated, he was given a
place as foreman in the Kentuck
mine; from there to the Bulletin,
as superintendent, was but q step.
One day he got pointer from the
superintendent of the Kentuck, j..
NJ. Walker, brother Of ex-governor
Walker of Virginia, and he acted
on it. One other day. not long
afterwards, he found himself the
possessor of 100000 in $40 gold
pieces. But that 100000 didn't
seem half as big as the $4,000 he
didn't possess a few months ago.
He took himself around behind the
hosting works one day and said /:
"John, it's time you were catching
on if you're going to-" and from
that day in 1881 he has never given
up his efforts to catch on. When
l first knew him he modestly ad-
mitted an income of 100000 per
month. But at that time the fam
Gus bonanza firm had become a
fact. 1t was composed of John W.
Mackay, the whilom ore-car pusher,
in the Ophir; James G. Fair, for
mer California miner; James C.
Flood, and William O'Brien, for
merly proprietor of the Auction
Lunch saloon in San Francisco.
None of these men made their
money or got their start in 4 day
nor have ever known any Of the
Comstock magnates who did. The
great world does not hear of them
until they suddenly blossom as
millionaires. If We examine their
antecedents We will find they had
their ups and downs like the rest
Of us.
For instance Flood and O'Brien
began their speculations in a mod
crate way. They were more than
ordinarily lucky and they found
themselves worth something over
a million in 1873. Jim Fair had
been a California miner for years,
but he was a thorough miner and
a very keen man. Mackay and
Fair formed q coalition with Flood
and O'Brien. They kept these two
posted as to developments on the
Comstock, and 50 fortunate were
their investments that the fact that
they were formed for one another
Was forced upon them, and they
gave the world taste of their quail
ity when in 1874 they captured the
control of the Hale & Norcross
mine from the Bank of California
syndicate. This was the beginning
of their worldwide reputation.
They got hold of tho claims between
the Ophir and Gould & Curry mines,
reorRanized them, clapped on an
assessment of g per share and pro-
ceeded to develope, what . great
many wiseacres thought would turn
out to be q porphyry horse. But
there was 4 howl when the exceed
ing richness of the great property,
the Consolidated Virginia, was made
patent to the world. There were
los, 900 shares in the company Of
which the bonanza firm had q con-
troll. This mine paid 81 1,O8O. 900
per month in dividends for months
and months. Mackay was the con-
trolling force in the BONANZA firm,
and he held two-ffths interest,
while each of his partners held one
fifth. They owned immense tracts
of timber in the Sierra Nevadas.
Twenty miles from Virginia City
thev owned the water which was
brought twenty-one miles in flume
from Lake Tahoe. They were the
principal stockholders in the mills:
In q word, they "owned the earth, f"
80 far - this part of it and ito in
terests were concerned.
OTHERS II THE FIELD.